December 2005

The Archives

personal
My New Years Resolution
12.23.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on My New Years Resolution

Created by the brilliant hugh macleod [Gaping Void]
personal
You know you live in Canada when….
12.22.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on You know you live in Canada when….

….. the front page of a newspaper is completely covered with the olympic selections of the Canadian hockey teams. Of course the rest of the world doesn’t give a rats ass about hockey, so please stop bugging me about speed skating, the only sport that matters during the winter olympics. And HELLO, does anybody know we’re in the middle of an election campaign?
personal
Meet Sheri the Social Worker
12.19.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on Meet Sheri the Social Worker

Meet Sheri the social worker, formally know as Sheri the student. Also known as my wife. She graduated a couple of months ago and her diploma arrived last week. She couldn’t attend the official ceremony in Victoria because we were in Nepal so it had a bit of an official feel to it when it arrived. It has a prominent place in the living room. Nobody could be more proud than me.
personal
What happened online while I was away
12.07.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on What happened online while I was away
Innovation online still happens rapidly. I was on vacation for a month with virtually no access to the internet (except some blog updates). I’m still plowing through hundreds of entries in my feed reader to try and get back up to speed. Here are some things that stand out so far:
- Jacob Nielsen claims the end of WYSIWYG. His argument is that Microsoft will re-define the User Interface to a Results-Oriented UI with office 12. Jacob hasn’t been without controversy over the years and he often uses his alertbox to create discussion, stir the pot, or get exposure. Peter Merholz is not impressed.
- I forgot where I found this. A great article in Forbes about the way Google manages people, teams and projects. I like a lot of this stuff. I’m a fan of small teams, with great people, who are empowered to make decisions.
- My favorite Gaping Void art.
- Found through Gaping Void: How to spend your marketing and ad budget Old vs. New.
- You can now search for airfare through Google. I think this is just the beginning, and I’m sure hotels are next. Be afraid travel search engines…
- Found on the Yahoo Blog: A new mapping tool for Yahoo is in Beta, including API’s. It’s using Flash (in a nice way) and the route planning functionality is more than decent. It includes the opportunity to plan multiple destinations, something that’s in the works for HelloBc.com so it’s nice to see an example of a good application.
- Yahoo has updated Site Explorer and accepts RSS feed for easy indexing. Yahoo has indexed over 1700 pages of HelloBC.
Management
Great marketing doesn�t always start with marketers
12.06.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on Great marketing doesn�t always start with marketers

I have to be honest. Part of why I made a radical career change in the late 90’s was because “the internet was going to change the world”. Not too much later I was worried I made the wrong move. These were the days of marketers who didn’t get it; banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, spam, bad email marketing come to mind. But we’re back on track and great innovators have shaped a new internet experience and you can even call it web 2.0.

What has made me really excited recently is how Microsoft is showing a vulnerability through blogs and efforts such as channel 9. The interview with Bill Gates looks so genuine that’s almost endearing. I almost forgot that Bill is the richest man in the world. What Robert Scoble and his comrades are doing is the new marketing.

To that effect, Scoble points to a posting that describes it well.

It�s so easy to draft up a marketing plan that runs through the checkboxes – banner ads, check. Keyword buys, check. DM (if you have budget), check. List buy + email drop, check. Content kit call-to-action that collects PII for your me-too newsletter, check. These, for the most part, work in terms of generating leads and moving people through the pipeline. We have the stats to prove it, which is why marketers always fall back on tactics like these. Lord knows I have time and again.

(…)

Don�t be obvious by using the same tried-and-true tricks in the marketers bag. Don�t fall back to them just because they are safe, even if you get burned by being out on the edge. The challenge to all of us in the field is to look outside our profession to those who are doing great marketing, even if it�s not so easy to recognize it as such at first glance.

At Tourism BC, our recently launched blogs are very successfull and people are talking about doing more. Things are officially exciting again.
personal
Pouring the perfect beer
12.02.05 | Permalink | Comments Off on Pouring the perfect beer
Heineken has created a website about how to pour the perfect beer. Dutch style that is because in North America, they have a lot to learn about this subject. The website is in Dutch, but here’s a summary:
1. Foam. The main problem in North America is that beer is poured without foam. Foam is actually very important. It keeps the oxygen away from the beer. Oxygen and beer create gasses that fills you up, so less room for more beer. It also shows that the beer hasn’t gone bad and the glass is clean. The foam eventually turns into beer, so the nett loss is minimal. That’s why beer comes with “two fingers” of foam in the Netherlands.
2. Clean Glass. Always clean the glass before pouring. Don’t use a dishwasher because the glass gets damaged. Use warm water with sodium. After, rinse the glass with cold water. Never dry the glass with a dry towel, it leaves fibers that destroys the layer of foam.
3. Perfect Pour. Let some beer leave the tab before putting the glass under it. Control the flow so the beer spirals into the glass. Let some beer spill over.
4. Remove access foam with a wet stick. It leaves an extra thin layer of water on top of the foam, another layer of protection against oxygen.
And that’s the perfect pour. For a video, goto http://www.perfecttappen.nl/, Click “Ouder dan 18 en grote breedband verbinding”, allow the popup to come up, click “tapcursus” and “doe het voor”. You’ll see the perfect pour in a typical Amsterdam cafe. Cheers!